A tourist visa to go home?
Tariq A. Al-Maeena
The Israeli government has been practicing and perfecting the art of ethnic cleansing since 1948 right under the nose of the world and no one has the power or the guts to do anything about it. In 1948 the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194 on the question of Palestine, which ‘resolves that refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return…’ The government of Israel, however, opposes this universally granted right in order to preserve the Jewish character of the state…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45745

The Palestinians Deserve Better Leadership
Hasan Afif El-Hasan
While attending the French sponsored Union for the Mediterranean conference, the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was quoted by BBC saying “the two parties, Israel and the Palestinians, are serious about achieving peace”. Really?! May be peace on Israel’s terms! And on July 1st the Associated Press reported that Abbas facilitated a friendly meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani during the 23rd Congress of the Socialist International meeting in Greece. Abbas was shown displaying a satisfaction grin while his two friends Talabani and Barak were shaking hands. I dare to ask why does the Palestinian leader seem happy when the man who commits daily crimes against his people, occupy their lands and build the separation wall is being introduced to the President of an Arab country that does not recognize Israel officially! Abbas knows more than anybody else that Israel seeks normalization before peace with the Palestinians and Talabani-Barak hand shake is one step toward normalization…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45746

Drought and Israeli Policy Threaten West Bank Water Security
Stephen Lendman
Fresh water is precious everywhere but especially in one of the driest, hottest places on earth – the Middle East. It’s why it’s a strategic resource and the reason countries like Israel do everything possible to secure a reliable supply. In the words of former prime minister Moshe Sharett: “Water to us is life itself.” It shapes Israeli policy going back to the early Mandate period…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45755

The tragic case of Omar Khadr
Spencer Spratley
According to Unicef, a child soldier is defined as any person under the age of 18 who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group. These child soldiers are viewed by most Governments and world institutions as victims who require varying degrees of trauma healing, rehabilitation and reintegration into their communities (…) Now contrast this with the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was taken from Canada to the Middle East by his family when he was a teenager. Khadr was also removed from the battlefield when he was 15 after his father was killed and he was wounded during a firefight with U.S. troops. Instead of being returned to Canada for treatment and care, he was sent to Guantanamo Bay as an enemy combatant and held for years without charge in cruel and unusual conditions. And rather than coming to his aid, successive Canadian Governments ignored their moral and ethical responsibilities by leaving him to rot…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45762

Iraq’s Shabak Accuse Kurds of Killing Their Leader
Assyrian International News Agency
The Shabak, from the north of Iraq, are a minority group of Iraq with their own religion and language. As with all of the north of Iraq, the Shabak region was a military target of the Kurdish militant Peshmerage. Being a smaller community, the Shabak has been exposed to the intimidation, assassination and suppression much more than the larger communities of the region: the Arabs, the Turkmen, the Chaldea-Assyrians and Yazidis. At 17:00 on Saturday, July 13th, 2008, Mr. Abbas Kadhim, a member of the Shabak Assembly, was returning home after participating in a conference about the upcoming election. At the crossroads of the village Omar Qabchi, 10 km from the center of the sub-district Bashiqa, he was attacked by an armed group with machine-guns, and killed. Mr. Kadhim is the father of five. Kurdish Peshmerges’ checkpoints are scattered along the road…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45765

Children are paying the price of injustice
The beating of a pre-pubescent youth by soldiers is just another example of human rights abuse in the occupied territories
Seth Freedman, Guardian
“I feel like I’m still in prison”, said Muhammad, as he described life after spending nearly five months in an Israeli jail. He sat nervously in his lounge as he answered questions about his ordeal, his baby-smooth face and teenager’s awkward gait in stark contrast to the severe punishment meted out to him as though he were a hardened, adult criminal. In February, Muhammad was snatched by a four-man squad of Israeli special forces while playing with friends near the security wall, a mile away from his home. He was subjected to a vicious beating by the men, who punched him repeatedly and smashed him across the face with the butt of a gun in broad daylight. “No one said a word to me during [the attack]”, recalled Muhammad, whose description of the assault bore marked similarities to Rodney King’s ordeal…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45758

Two US soldiers killed in Iraq — MNF
KUNA
Two US soldiers were killed in separate incidents in the Iraqi provinces of Diyala and Anbar, according to the Multi-National Force (MNF) on Wednesday.
In a statement, the MNF – North said a soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device rigged into a house while conducting operations in Diyala province on July 15. Another statement said an MNF – West marine died of wounds he received in action against an enemy force in Al-Anbar province on July 14…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45760

US troops pull out of Afghan base after attack
AMIR SHAH, Associated Press
U.S. and Afghan troops have abandoned a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan where militants killed nine American soldiers this week, officials said Wednesday. Compounding the military setback, insurgents quickly seized the village of Wanat in Nuristan province after driving out the handful of police left behind to defend government offices, Afghan officials said…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45756

Obama outlines policy of endless war
Bill Van Auken, WSWS
Any misconception that Barack Obama is running in the 2008 election as an “antiwar” candidate should have been cleared up Tuesday in what was billed by the Democratic presidential campaign as a “major speech” on national security and the US war in Iraq. Speaking before a backdrop of massed American flags at the Reagan Building in Washington, Obama made it clear that he opposes the present US policy in Iraq not on the basis of any principled opposition to neo-colonialism or aggressive war, but rather on the grounds that the Iraq war is a mistaken deployment of power that fails to advance the global strategic interests of American imperialism…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45753

New US-NATO Massacre in Afghanistan
Afghan air strikes kill four women and five children
AFP
Afghan authorities said Wednesday air strikes against extremist rebels in southwestern Afghanistan had killed four women and five children as well as several insurgents… US Lieutenant Nathan Perry confirmed to AFP that air strikes were used against rebels in the area overnight. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US-led coalition are also investigating official reports that 64 civilians were killed in strikes in northeastern Afghanistan early this month…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45764

US to Send Envoy to Iran Talks
Alalam News Network, Iran
The US will send an envoy to talks this weekend between Iran and major world powers over Tehran’s nuclear program, a senior US official said. In a shift in policy, US Under Secretary of State William Burns will join European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and envoys from China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany in a meeting with Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Geneva on Saturday, the official said. They will discuss Iran’s response to an offer made by world powers last month to suspend some nuclear work. The US had said previously it would not be involved in any pre-negotiations with Tehran unless it gave up uranium enrichment… There have been also other overtures toward Iran in recent weeks. The US is looking at opening up a US interests section in Tehran, which would allow for diplomatic contact, while falling short of diplomatic ties. Currently, Switzerland acts as a go-between between the US and Iran…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45751

Video: The Village of Naalin is Fighting for Its Life
Hesham Tillawi of Current Issues TV speaks with Hindi Mesleh and Grace-Eki Oyama from the frontline. Israel is steeling the village land and on top of that Israel is building a wall arouynd the town to choke the life out of the town to force its residents to flee.

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45748

A family under siege
Philip Rizk writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine
At the end of my visit they started asking me to take pictures for their brothers, uncles, sons and fathers detained in Israeli prisons for over four months — a picture of a newborn not yet seen by the imprisoned father, one father’s favorite girl and a picture of the detainees’ pictures hanging on the wall to let the prisoners know they are missed, they are celebrated. On 19 March Israel rounded up Assad Salach and his sons Fahmi and Salach and Assad’s brother Sa’id and his son Ghassan along with over 300 men age 16 and above along its northern border with the Gaza Strip. It is not the first time that Israel arrests the male members of the Salach family…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45761

Obama, Iraq and Afghanistan
Tom Hayden
…Since twists and turns seem to be the only pattern in divide-and-conquer strategies, it is possible that Obama thinks being tough towards Afghanistan and Pakistan is a defensive cover for withdrawing from Iraq, and he later will follow up with unspecified diplomacy after he takes office. But history shows that creeping escalations create a momentum and constituency of their own. Obama might get lucky, lower the level of the visible wars and embrace a diplomatic offensive. But North and South Waziristan could be his Bay of Pigs. To borrow a popular phrase of the season, ending one war Iraq to start two more in Afghanistan and Pakistan seems to be a dumb idea…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45747

Taliban push has US on defensive
The Australian
The US’s ability to defeat insurgents in Afghanistan has been thrown further into doubt after Sunday’s deadly Taliban attack on a US outpost in the east of the country – an area recently touted as a counter-insurgency success. Increasingly bold attacks on US and NATO forces have forced them on to the defensive and analysts say coalition forces are now stretched to deal with deteriorating fronts both in the south and the east. The spike in attacks has raised alarm with Afghan officials, who yesterday accused neighbouring Pakistan of being an “exporter of terrorism”. Afghanistan said yesterday it would boycott a series of meetings with Pakistan unless “bilateral trust” was restored…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45763

How Vanunu Harms Israel: BAD PR!
Eileen Fleming, thepeoplesvoice.org
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.-Article 13-2 UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS. On July 8, 2008, instead of ending Mordechai Vanunu’s freedom of speech trial which began in January 2006, the three Judges have put off their decision until September. His brother Meir has predicted, “So we wait to September, and then I bet it will be another postponed hearing.” …

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45743

Hamas: Zionist pressures cancelled Blair’s visit to Gaza
Palestinian Information Center
The Hamas Movement on Tuesday said that Tony Blair, the international quartet committee’s envoy, cancelled his scheduled visit to the Gaza Strip due to Israeli pressures. Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, the Movement’s spokesman, said in a statement that the visit would have proven Hamas’s success in standing by its stands of refusing to recognize occupation or surrender resistance. He added that the visit would have also proven an opportunity for the international community to have a close look into the humanitarian tragedy the Strip is suffering due to the Israeli siege and aggression…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45752

Hezbollah hands over dead Israeli soldiers in swap
AFP
Hezbollah on Wednesday handed over the bodies of two Israeli soldiers seized by guerrillas two years ago, in a prisoner swap greeted with triumph in Lebanon but anguish in Israel. “Today we hand over Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev,” Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa said at the Naqura border crossing between Lebanon and Israel as men placed two black coffins on the ground amid a crowd of onlookers… Israeli public radio said tests confirmed the bodies were the two soldiers, although the army did not comment…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45754

Torture Triptych: Portrait of the Real America, July 2008
Chris Floyd
A panel of federal judges upholds the presidential autocrat’s right to seize American citizens and place them in military detention (…) Read that story in conjunction with this interview with Jane Mayer, about her new book on how the Bush-Cheney faction’s long-held, pre-9/11 doctrine of presidential autocracy was written on the bodies on tortured captives…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45749

Court: Bush Can Detain Civilians in US Indefinitely
ADAM LIPTAK, NYTimes
President Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision. But a second, overlapping 5-to-4 majority of the court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, ruled that Ali al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar now in military custody in Charleston, S.C., must be given an additional opportunity to challenge his detention in federal court there. An earlier court proceeding, in which the government had presented only a sworn statement from a defense intelligence official, was inadequate, the second majority ruled…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45757

ANOTHER ‘VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS’ ~~ THIS TIME IN AMERICA
Desertpeace
The people of Gaza are not the only people on this earth without a voice. The Americans are not much better off in reality. The corporate media spouts out tons of garbage daily, but are they saying anything? That is the question. The American people are literally left in the dark, reading only what the powers that be want them to read. Every now and again, an exception to the rule appears on the journalistic scene. Sarah Price is such an exception. Sarah is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles. She visited Gaza in October 2007, and has written for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and KNBC Los Angeles, and has appeared on Lighthouse TV in Los Angeles, discussing the humanitarian crises in Gaza…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=45759